Hiya M8 Let thisx newb take a stab at it
The 2 screens(the colony screen and the finaces screen) are ino for different playstyles, as well as for beginning and complex strategy development.
With the colony screen, you can adapt the planets for what you want them to do(like u said with ur factory planets, and with your newly aquired planets) the finaces screen is when you have a lot of planets. that way you don't have to spend a lot of time going to each and every planet to micromanage.
Personally, i never use the colony screen, the finances screen is plenty adaquate for me. if i only have one thing going on(no new planet faculities, and no ships that need built) i put my research slider at 100% then adjust(if i need to) the overall production modifier, till i have either a 0 balance to slightly negative balance(like losing -8bc a week) If i need like 10 or 12 economy bases for my newly aquired freightor routes(which imo is a must) then i set the research slider and the military slider at 50% each, then adjust over all production(that slider at the very top) to once again to get either a 0 or slight negative scale. If the game wants to cheat(lol, i said cheat) and give every other freakin Civ that precurser planet system growth where before they had a 20, 17, and 3 "0" planets, but now they have a 20, a 17, and now 3 "14" planets. I switch to 100% military, and hope that my economics holds out till i can make those 14's back to 0's.(or i just die, cause all the civs declare war on me, and totally anialhite me)
btw i only saw that once, and it was all in a row. I lasted roughly bout 30 turns.
hope that helps.